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My first ALDI experience

October 24, 2013

I had my first ALDI experience last week. I’ll back-up a moment…an ALDI representative reached out to me a couple months ago to invite me to participate in a brand ambassadorship. I was pretty excited to jump in on this because my perception of ALDI was already pretty good based on my friends and family who are big fans. My parents shop there (I think their favorite item is the hummus), my younger brother and his fiance are ALDI shoppers, my sister-in-law and my brother shop there and so does a my friend and colleague Eden. When they talk about ALDI they sort of rave about it. So I figured, what the heck, I’d love to check it out.To be honest I’d been hesitant to add ALDI to my grocery shopping routine because I’ve been a Super Target shopper for years with bi-weekly trips to Trader Joes. I live close to an ALDI but wasn’t sure about adding yet another store into my busy routine.

I finally checked ALDI out last week and realized I can save a decent amount of money shopping there.To be completely transparent here, I only buy organic milk for Juliet so I’ll continue getting her milk at Trader Joes (ALDI doesn’t carry organic milk). But Erik drinks regular skim milk and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ALDI brand Friendly Farms milk is made with no artificial growth hormones and it is cheaper ($2.49/gallon) than the price I am use to paying (anywhere from $2.79 – $3.50). Erik drinks A LOT of milk, so that will be nice savings over time. I brought the whole family grocery shopping with meA couple important things to know before shopping at ALDI:

Be sure to bring a quarter with you, you’ll need it to get a shopping cart. You put a quarter in to get a cart and then you get the quarter back when you return the cart.

You have to bring your own bags (or buy a reusable bag there) and bag your own groceries.

These things help keep costs down and prices low in the store.Here is the grocery stash from my first trip. I spent $63, this is the lowest amount I have spent grocery shopping in a very long time. I usually never leave Target without spending at least $125. This stash included bacon-wrapped beef Erik picked up, eggs, bread, deli meat, produce (salad mix, peppers, mini peppers, apples, carrots), fresh mozzarella, hummus, cereal, artichokes, peanut butter, milk, frozen sliced fruit, almond milk, greek yogurt, dish soap and probably a few things I’m forgetting. Not bad, huh?

Another reason I know I’ll save money from shopping at Target less and ALDI more is that I won’t be tempted to buy random things I don’t need (like shirts, accessories, etc). ALDI is a pretty small store (only about 5 aisles) so you get in and out quickly. You don’t waste time wandering around aimlessly (which I’ve been known to do plenty of times at bigger grocery stores). I was able to pick up a few organic items including spinach, apples and carrots. I stocked up on sliced frozen fruit, greek yogurt and almond milk which are my daily smoothie essentials.Peach, banana and spinach smoothie

Comments

Good to know that they have some organic offerings! We have an Aldi in my town, but I've been hesitant to try it out. Once they open back up (they're remodeling, currently), I'll have to plan to hit it up. Thanks for the review!

Kate – they definitely don't have a lot of organic offering but I was pleased with the organic items I bought (it's super affordable). They also have other good quality items like dark chocolate and pistachios that are very good.